Movie Box Review

The bell tolled for another failed new series last night, which was otherwise fairly stable.

ABC:  If SUBURGATORY can hold its rating around last night's 3 for another week, it should be a strong candidate for an early back order.  (See our PILOT + 1 review.)  The night's other sitcoms slipped a bit, but nothing to be concerned about--in fact, a mere 0.2 fall for the second week of HAPPY ENDINGS isn't bad at all.  REVENGE can keep going at last night's 2.5, but it needs to hold steady around there. 

FOX:  X-FACTOR continues to hold at or around a very solid 4, and gave FOX the win again last night.  The only disquieting news for the network was that its lead-in did nothing for the new episode of RAISING HOPE that aired at 9:30PM, which may mean that the reality show won't provide the launching pad later this season for I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER that FOX was hoping for.

NBC:  Here's what you have to say about the newly back-ordered UP ALL NIGHT:  its 2.2 rating was the highest scored by any NBC show on the network's Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night schedules this week.  Grading on a curve, that makes it a success.  FREE AGENTS, though, was too low even for the Peacock, and has bitten the dust.  HARRY'S LAW  and SVU were steady, albeit at cruddy numbers. 

CBS:  The network's Wednesday average was even with last week:  you just plug it in, and it works.

CW:  It's hard to believe that even CW can live for long with H8R's 0.4 rating.  AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL has stabilized, but 30% below last season.

Everyone was down, as the new season started to settle in on itself--but some were down more than others.

ABC:  MODERN FAMILY is doing quite spectacularly, more than 20% above last season's average.  The results in other timeslots were more mixed.  SUBURGATORY had a very nice debut at 8:30 (again, kudos to ABC Marketing this Fall), but it's a little disappointing that THE MIDDLE wasn't able to capitalize on NBC's increasing woes at 8PM, although it was still slightly above last season's average.   HAPPY ENDINGS was up a whopping 50% from its average last season, and almost double last year's season finale (which was admittedly in the less attractive 10:30PM slot)--and by the way, rightly so, since in a way Happy Endings had last year's most impressive reboot, miraculously becoming funny after a terrible first few episodes.  REVENGE is still OK, a solid second place in its timeslot, but it's no longer looking like a hit (other than in comparison to last season's disaster The Whole Truth)--and because of its serialized nature, once viewers have left, it'll be awfully hard to get them back.

FOX:  More of the same for X FACTOR:  it's not a blockbuster, but it's a big enough hit to win the night.  I'm not sure how FOX's coverage of the baseball post-season will affect X Factor's schedule over the next few weeks, but if the show has to skip many episodes, that'll be something to keep an eye on.

NBC:  UP ALL NIGHT has pushed past being a dubious success story to a show on the brink of trouble.  Last night's 2.1 puts its numbers squarely into COMMUNITY/PARKS & RECREATION territory, and as much as I love those shows, that's not where you want your big new comedy to be.  FREE AGENTS is just waiting for its cancellation notice, which may be delayed for PR reasons if NBC doesn't want to be the first network to admit to Fall failure.  HARRY'S LAW can't even pull in its presumed older audience, let alone 18-49s.  And the arrival of Danny Pino did nothing for SVU--if the show falls any lower than its current 2.0, it would be a candidate for cancellation anywhere but NBC, where they have too many bigger problems.

CBS:  Stability, thy name is CBS.  SURVIVOR and CSI barely budged from last week, and although CRIMINAL MINDS is now a bit below last season's average, it's facing very strong competition from Modern Family and X Factor.  

CW:  H84 was slightly less DOA than last week (it's unutterably sad to think that may be because Kim Kardashian was featured), and AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL continues to be more than 30% below last season's average.

Tonight, quite a few shows will be airing their second episodes and waiting to find out how many viewers come back for more (look for plenty of Pilot + 1 Reviews tonight).  For NBC, the critical numbers will be for The Office and Whitney in the 9PM hour, which is all that's keeping the network from complete non-football oblivion.